Hagerstown City Council will not meet through the end of October

The mayor and Hagerstown City Council will not meet on Tuesday, Oct. 30, city Clerk Donna Spickler said Friday in an email.

During their Oct. 23 meeting, Mayor Robert E. Bruchey II and city council members had differing opinions about whether or not to meet again this month.

The Oct. 23 regular session was the last required meeting of the month.

Bruchey confirmed Wednesday that city staff were preparing a new Hagerstown Suns lease proposal for review, and hoped to meet with the city council to at least go over changes made from previous proposals.

Bruchey said he believed the revisions made in the new proposal were suitable for Suns ownership to agree in principal.

However, Councilman Lewis C. Metzner said Tuesday and again Wednesday that he didn’t agree with having another meeting this month, especially if its sole purpose was to discuss or vote on matters related to the Suns or the proposed multiuse sports and events center project.

Councilman Forrest W. Easton said Oct. 23 that “this administration is not going to push through a stadium with the last two meetings on this agenda.”

Metzner said Friday that he and other city officials agreed with Easton’s comments.

“At this stage of the game, the community would be much happier” that any further decisions related to the Suns or the stadium project were made by the next elected body, Metzner said.

The community will cast their votes for mayor and all five seats on city council Tuesday, Nov. 6.

Securing a long-term lease with the Suns as the primary tenant of the proposed ballpark is one of the needed contingencies in moving the project forward. While it doesn’t guarantee that the project will happen, it would be a major hurdle in the process.

City officials have said they still need to confirm the private $15 million anonymous donation and $10 million in state funding, neither of which are guaranteed at this point, before they could consider advancing preliminary plans.